By Khalida Sarwari
After spending all morning designing their rocket, Nathaniel Goodwin and Samantha Kitchener marched out to the rocket launch zone, put goggles over their eyes and watched the spacecraft take off into the skies above the St. Andrew’s School parking lot. Seconds later, the rocket zig-zagged down and Nathaniel and Samantha walked back to their classroom to tinker some more with their design. It was just another Monday at Camp Galileo’s day camp in Saratoga.
Back at the “supernova science” classroom, Nathaniel, 8, and Samantha, 7, plopped down on their seats and quickly got to work redesigning their rocket. Surrounded by construction paper and scissors, Samantha said she loves the challenges at camp, and Nathaniel said it’s worth the commute from his home in Scotts Valley for the science and outdoors segments of the camp.
“It’s like an hour drive here, but I don’t care. It’s so fun,” he said.
The theme of the week was space at Camp Galileo and campers transformed into little scientists, designing rocket packs and helmets and learning words such as “aerodynamic” and “thrust.” In art class, kids spread out on the floor to paint the galaxy.
Art is one of three “rotations” that campers go through daily at Camp Galileo, along with science and the outdoors. Kayvon Raissi, a kindergartener at St. Andrew’s, said art and science are two rotations he looks forward to every day, “because we make fun things.”
There also seems to be plenty of breaks for the Magic Rubber Chicken, the camp’s mascot and a source of endless entertainment for the kids.
At noontime, while the younger kids gathered to eat underneath a giant oak tree on one side of the campus, the older ones came together on the other to sing. Michael Lane, camp director for Camp Galileo Saratoga, strummed his guitar and led the group in song. Afterward, everyone took off running to participate in tag, indoor soccer or face painting.
Camp Galileo is a Bay Area summer camp for kids in pre-K through fifth grade with a strong focus on art, science and the outdoors. The program, which also combines team-building exercises and traditional camp activities, has been at the St. Andrew’s School site for eight years.
Campers are grouped by grade level into teams of 10 to 16 that are led by a team leader throughout the week. The “nebulas” are kindergarteners, “stars” are first- and second-graders and “supernovas” are third- through fifth-graders. The subjects are taught by instructors who are classroom teachers during the school year.
The campers use the Galileo innovation approach, a process that is similar to the scientific method and includes “redesigning” as the last step after “test” and “evaluate.”
Team leaders extolled the benefits of the camp. Compared to other day camps, Camp Galileo is more structured and teaches kids to handle failure, they said. It is not “just a babysitting camp,” said Lane.
“I like that the camp encourages kids to ask questions and gives them more to do than just give them a project,” Madeline Halluin, a team leader, said.
Each week, Camp Galileo promotes a new theme and even has themed days where kids are encouraged to dress up. Shea Elmore, a 6-year-old from Los Gatos, said space week was her favorite, but recalled how much fun she had on Renaissance Faire Day during carnival week.
“I got to wear one of my favorite dresses,” she said. “That was really fun.”
On two days out of the weeklong camp, all 230 campers assemble for games and “some friendly competition,” said Lane.
“We encourage kids to be silly, but to also feel safe,” he said.
